Western critics hailed the 1952 book as a great work of African fantasy. In fact it’s better understood as a pioneering work of African science fiction.
Ray Harryhausen with a skeleton model from Jason and the Argonauts.
National Galleries of Scotland.
From mythical beasts to extinct creatures, the pioneering special effects work of Ray Harryhausen inspired a generation of zoologists, palaeontologists and ecologists.
Total Recall is being re-released on its 30th birthday. With its economical, fast-paced narrative embedded in a spectacular cinematic world, it is a masterpiece of late 20th century Hollywood.
On the morning of Sept. 9, San Franciscans woke up to a transformed cityscape.
AP Photo/Eric Risberg
The eerie San Francisco skyline evoked sci-fi movies for a reason. Filmmakers are increasingly using color grading to tinge their films with two hues, orange and teal, to unsettle viewers.
Faced with events that transcend borders, science fiction novels contend with interconnectedness around and beyond Earth.
(Shutterstock)
Science fiction novels have long addressed events — including disease and alien invasion — that reflect issues of global concern, much like the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Fantasy fiction provides more than escapism for young readers.
Wade Watts becomes a better global citizen when he reconnects to the real world in Ernest Cline’s novel ‘Ready Player One.’ Tye Sheridan stars as Watts in Steven Spielberg’s film adaptation.
(2018 edition of 'Ready Player One'/Penguin Random House)
The bestselling novel turned film exposes paradoxes of fixing a broken system with its own tools. As we collectively meditate on the world’s problems, why not imagine better worlds?
In the television show ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ Charles Darwin’s ‘Descent of Man’ makes a cameo — and its appearance makes a comment on how Gilead functions.